Athos walked into the house, glad to finally be getting off work on time, and just stared at this hyper active puppy running around the house, chasing the tennis ball. It's been a few days since he saved d'Artagnan and he felt like he saved himself. Usually after work he would go straight to the bar and stay there until late, but now he knew he had to get home to let d'Artagnan out, poor little puppy had an accident or two and it broke his heart when d'Artagnan hid behind the chair whining like he was going to get beat for the accident, so he made sure to get his work done so he could get home on time.

"Well don't we have a lot of energy," he said, closing the door. He laughed when d'Artagnan literally skidded across the polished wooden floor and spun around to greet him. He never thought this would matter to him but he actually enjoyed it when d'Artagnan greeted him from a long day at work. He knelt down and scratched d'Artagnan behind the ear, checking the bandages to make sure there was no blood. Aramis had checked him over and said to keep some of the wounds covered for a while until they healed. Standing up he patted his leg and walked to the back door, opening it and smiled when d'Artagnan darted out. He closed the door and went to work on making dinner, thinking it was a nice evening for a small walk, maybe to get some of that energy out of d'Artagnan. He heard a small bark from outside and opened the door for d'Artagnan.

"Are you ready for some dinner?" Athos picked up the small food bowl and opened a large Tupperware where he kept the dog food in and set it down before filling up a cup of water and poured it into the second bowl. He went back to his dinner and finally sat down to eat. He opened a beer and looked down at d'Artagnan, waiting for the usual growl he got when he opened a beer. It seemed Labarge had a bad habit of drinking and beating him but in the few days of living with him, d'Artagnan must have understood that Athos does drink but he has never raised a hand.

Dinner went pretty quiet until the doorbell rang. d'Artagnan looked up from his water and ran towards the door, sniffing the air. He's been really good at telling when strangers are near the house and he's never smelled this scent before so he did what any guard dog would do. He barked. Well, it was a small, non-threating bark but it was still a bark. Athos walked up behind d'Artagnan and opened the door to reveal Constance and her husband.

"Good evening Constance. Monsieur Bonacieux."

Constance smiled and then knelt down with a smile on her face at the puppy. "Athos. I didn't know you had a puppy. He's so cute." She held out her hand and just waited for the puppy to sniff her. She knew that dogs could tell a good person by just their scent so she just waited.

"His name is d'Artagnan and I saved him a couple days ago," Athos said, watching d'Artagnan for distress. Meeting new people hasn't been the puppy's strong point and he wanted to make sure d'Artagnan was going to be okay. He relaxed when d'Artagnan walked over and sniffed Constance's hand and then licked it.

"Saved?" Bonacieux asked, looking down and noticing the bandages.

"Last owner was beating him in an ally while I was on patrol." Athos dug into his pocket and pulled out the check for his rent, knowing they would be over today for it.

"That's horrible," Constance said, standing up with d'Artagnan in hand. "He's so sweet and cute." She laughed when d'Artagnan started licking her face and then looked at her husband. "He won't hurt you. I promise." She held d'Artagnan up and smiled when her husband took him. Why was it so hard for men to admit that puppies were cute?

"Well, he his kind of cute," Bonacieux said, a little unsettled with a puppy in his arms. "I just don't see you as a dog person, Athos."

To some that might have sounded like an insult, but Athos knew it wasn't an insult, but just a curiosity one might have by just looking at him. He smiled and took d'Artagnan, setting him down. "I thought that too."

"Well, I do hope you try to keep this house as nice as you can. So far you are my only renter that knows how to take care of a house," Bonacieux said.

"I will. You both have a nice evening." Athos waved them bye and closed the door. He cleaned up his dinner and walked over to the front door where he kept d'Artagnan's collar and leash. The moment he took the leash off the hook, d'Artagnan was by his side, tennis ball in his mouth. "I'm afraid you must leave that here," he laughed. He knelt down and buckled d'Artagnan's collar, a small brown collar with a sword shape tag with his name on it and address. He hooked the leash to the collar and opened the door for their evening walk. The first time he put the collar on d'Artagnan, the little puppy had tried to eat the tag and then just kept shaking his head, getting used to the idea of a collar.

The walk was just around their neighborhood and d'Artagnan loved every minute of it. The collar was a perfect fit and not some scratchy rope. The neighborhood was nice with green grass and smiling faces, unlike Labarge's where the yards were dead, full of garbage, and everywhere you looked people were beating other people up. He stopped by a bush and sniffed before marking his territory and just continued to walk. He felt all the energy he had a few hours ago slowly leave his body, leaving him relaxed and at ease.

"Well, out for an evening stroll I see," a voice said from up ahead.

Athos looked up and forced a grin as his neighbor, Richelieu, walked up with his big Doberman, Rochefort. Richelieu was one of the guards at the courtroom that was always at Judge Louis side. "Good evening, Richelieu. How are you this evening?"

"Oh I'm doing rather well. I noticed a small black puppy running around your yard and now that I see him, he is rather a small little thing. Dog sitting?"

"He's mine. I saved him from his last owner."

"So this is the puppy I heard about in the court room." Richelieu knelt down and stared at the black puppy, smiling when the puppy whined and hid behind Athos legs. "Yes. His owner was Labarge, right?"

"Yes. He's been to court?"

"Yes. I guess it's a good thing that Judge Louis loves animals. Kept the two year jail time and no bail."

"Yes, it is a good thing, though I have no worries. Even if Labarge was to get out of jail, he would not be able to adopt or get another animal," Athos said, making sure Richelieu knew he had no intentions of letting d'Artagnan go back to that monster. "Besides. I already registered and got tags for d'Artagnan so he actually now belongs to me."

Well, aren't you the guarding angel."

d'Artagnan looked around Athos's legs and stared at Rochefort, not liking this bigger dog one bit. He would growl at him from behind the fence, telling him Athos would get rid of him or abandon him. Of course he didn't believe the dog, but there was still a little doubt. He looked up when he felt a small tug on the leash and Athos nodded his head that they were moving on and walked ahead, glade to be getting away from Rochefort. He walked around the corner and saw two men walking towards them and barked happily, tail wagging.

"Look who still remembers us," Porthos said, knelling down to pet d'Artagnan. "How you doing little guy?"

"He's looking very health," Aramis said, standing next to Athos. "Is he eating good?"

"Still inhales his food."

"Might take some time but do watch him. He could make himself sick eating so fast."

"Aramis, have you heard people getting their pets chipped?" Athos asked. Something in the back of his mind got him thinking about d'Artagnan.

"Oh yes. I hear it's a very good thing. If their pet gets lost they can scan the microchip that comes up a unique ID number, which then they can use that to find your information. Why do you ask?"

Athos told them what Richelieu said and how he acted. He was afraid that Labarge would either escape from jail and come back for d'Artagnan or send someone to do it for him and he was not going to let that happen. d'Artagnan now belonged to him and he would do whatever it takes to keep it that way.